U.S. inflation data for June gave markets room to pull back near-term Federal Reserve tightening expectations, but it did not settle the broader policy debate. Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on July 14 showed headline CPI fell 0.4% month over month on a seasonally adjusted basis and slowed to 3.5% year over year from 4.2% in May. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, was flat on the month and eased to 2.6% year over year from 2.9%. The immediate market response was clear. According to AP, traders cut the implied probability of a July rate hike to below 17%, down from about 42% a day earlier. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield slipped to 4.58% from 4.62% on Monday, while equities rose and crypto assets such as BTC and ETH caught a short-term bid. Still, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh did not endorse the idea of a policy pivot in congressional testimony the same day. He said the Federal Open Market Committee has “no tolerance for persistent high inflation” and offered no signal that one favorable CPI report would be enough to change direction. For now, the June report appears to have raised the bar for a July hike rather than confirmed a broader easing turn.

South Korea said on July 15 that it will draft a new Framework Act on State Assets, a move aimed at modernizing how government-owned assets are managed and expanding the legal perimeter to cover emerging asset classes such as cryptocurrencies. The Ministry of Economy and Finance said the current State Property Act was enacted in 1950 and was built around an asset structure centered on real estate, making it ill-suited to today’s more complex financial environment. Under the proposed framework, the definition of state assets would be broadened to include intellectual property and virtual assets. The government also said it plans to apply more specialized management and utilization mechanisms depending on the asset category, shifting the focus of state asset administration away from preservation, disposal and basic development toward value enhancement. At a Cabinet meeting held on Monday, the ministry said that while South Korea’s current national technology strategy is more focused on artificial intelligence, its commitment to developing the blockchain and digital-asset ecosystem remains in place. As part of its economic growth strategy for the second half of 2026, the government also outlined two blockchain-related priorities: continuing central bank digital currency development and speeding up work on the Digital Asset Basic Act for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

Apple’s on-device generative AI service, Apple Intelligence, has completed the required filing in China and has been cleared for use on iPhones sold in the Chinese market, according to Reuters, citing an announcement made Wednesday, July 15, by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The official notice did not specify a launch date. People familiar with the matter said Apple’s AI offering in China will integrate model capabilities from Baidu and Alibaba. Alibaba later confirmed in a statement that its Qwen large language model will be built into the Apple Intelligence experience for users in China across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS. Apple had not responded at the time of publication. The development sets out the regulatory status of Apple Intelligence in China, while leaving the rollout timetable undisclosed.

ChangXin Memory Technologies said its revenue growth from 2023 to 2025 was driven mainly by capacity expansion, capacity release, and a rapid production ramp, according to remarks made at an online investor meeting for its STAR Market listing on July 15. Chairman Zhu Yiming said the company has remained in a phase of expanding and releasing production capacity in order to lift output and market share, and that the resulting increase in output and sales was the biggest factor behind revenue growth over the period. He also said long-term technology investment and in-house innovation helped the company build first-, third-, and fourth-generation process technology platforms, with continued iteration leading to higher output per wafer. The company added that sales of its main DRAM products recorded a compound annual growth rate of 83.98% from 2023 to 2025, while the market overall remained in a state of demand outstripping supply.

RootData data shows the crypto industry recorded $9.081 billion in total funding across 259 deals in the first half of 2026. Excluding IPO, post-IPO and M&A rounds, primary market financing came in at $8.658 billion, down 26.1% from a year earlier, while the number of financing events fell 28.5% year over year. March and May marked the two funding peaks of the half, with 66 and 68 deals respectively, before deal count dropped to 43 in June, pointing to cooler capital activity toward the end of the second quarter. The report also counted 75 M&A transactions during the period, with 16 disclosing values totaling about $3.836 billion, mainly in CeFi, tools and information services, DeFi and infrastructure. Among active investors, Coinbase Ventures led with participation in 25 investments during the first half, ahead of Animoca Brands, a16z and Tether.

Kevin Hassett, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview on July 14 that all 67 economists surveyed by Bloomberg got their forecasts for the June Consumer Price Index wrong. Hassett said June CPI fell 0.4% from the previous month, marking the largest monthly decline in six years. He attributed the drop to cost-cutting measures taken by U.S. President Donald Trump. The remarks focused on the gap between economists’ expectations and the reported inflation data, while framing the June reading as a result of the administration’s policy actions.

A solo Bitcoin miner has mined block 957382 using a Bitaxe Gamma device through Public Pool, according to Techub News, which cited MSBIntel. The miner received a block reward of 3.1382 BTC, valued in the report at about $200,000. The device itself reportedly cost around $150 and had been running for only eight hours when it found the block. The report identified Bitaxe as an open-source device built for solo Bitcoin mining. The result stands out because it shows that small-scale miners can still win a full block reward on the Bitcoin network. That said, the report also stressed that the odds remain extremely low as network difficulty continues to rise. The event highlights a rare case in which low-cost hardware secured a major payout, even as solo mining becomes increasingly difficult in practice.

Protos reviewed six blockchain projects after crypto marketer Stacy Muur pointed out that they had raised more than $500 million combined while generating just $360 in blockchain fees over the past 24 hours. The group includes Berachain, Celestia, Scroll, Eclipse, Sonic, and Manta. The report ties together funding totals, token declines, TVL collapses, security setbacks, and post-airdrop outflows to show how far several once-hyped infrastructure bets have fallen from their peak narratives. Among the details cited: Berachain raised $142 million and its BERA token is down 98% since launch; Celestia raised funding across 2021, 2022, and 2024, while TIA fell to $0.40 after once topping $20; Scroll, valued at $1.8 billion in 2023, made just $24 in fees yesterday; Eclipse’s TVL dropped from nearly $50 million to $1.15 million; Sonic’s TVL declined sharply after the Fantom-to-Sonic transition; and Manta’s heavily gamified airdrop campaign was followed by a steep retreat in locked value.